Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
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Image:SheikhMujiburRehman.jpg Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (Bangla: শেখ মুজিবর রহমান) (March 17, 1920 – August 15, 1975), also known as Sheikh Mujib, was a nationalist political leader in the former East Pakistan and the principal founder of independent Bangladesh. Rahman was also the first Prime Minister of Bangladesh from 1972 to 1974, and later the President of Bangladesh from 1974 to his assassination in 1975. For his leadership in the freedom struggle of Bangladesh, he is known as Bangabandhu (Friend of Bangladesh).
Rising as a young student political leader in East Pakistan and as a protege of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, Rahman became the principal leader of the Awami League - a party committed to socialism and the interests of the Bengali population of Pakistan. Rahman campaigned staunchly against discrimination of Bengali peoples and cultures in Pakistan, and the neglect of East Pakistan by the central government in Rawalpindi. In the 1969 elections, Rahman led his party to a major victory and thus became the natural choice for President Yahya Khan to ask to form a government for all of Pakistan. Under pressure from West Pakistani politicians, Yahya refused to do this - thus accelerating the political crisis between the two wings. When dialogue failed after Rahman refused to concede the prime minister's post, he was imprisoned in the west even as the Pakistani military began a brutal campaign of suppression in the east. The independence of Bangladesh was declared in Rahman's name, and a government-in-exile formed in his absence. After nine months in prison, Rahman was released following the end of a guerilla insurgency and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, which had resulted in the liberation of Bangladesh.
Upon taking control of the new Bangladeshi state, Rahman adopted socialist and secular policies, and moved the new nation closer to India in foreign policy and defence. But the desperate poverty and political instability in the country, accompanied by the lack of funds for the government increased public discontent. Reacting to rising opposition and instability, Rahman amended the constitution to establish himself in a presidential rule system, outlaw newspapers and all political parties save the newly formed BAKSAL - an amalgamation of Rahman's political allies. Rahman became increasingly unpopular, and he was murdered by a group of army officers on August 15, 1975 with his family.
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Early life
Template:Expandsect Mujibur Rahman was born at the Tungipara village in Gopalganj, Bengal (now in Bangladesh). Rahman was educated in Calcutta and Cambridge, and qualified as a lawyer. His political career began almost immediately with Pakistan's independence, as co-founder of the East Pakistan Muslim Students' League, a student organization affiliated with the Muslim League. His secular and nationalistic ideals led him to found the Awami League (party of people) in the 1950s. A follower of H.S. Suhrawardy, Sheikh Mujib became a popular leader known for his socialist views and staunch leadership against feudalism in Pakistan.
The principal issue that would involve Mujibur Rahman and his party was the institutional discrimination against Bengalis in Pakistan. Despite forming a proportional majority of the population, Bengalis formed a small fraction of Pakistan's civil services, police and military. East Pakistan also received a smaller proportion of funds from the central government, and government schemes were also under-funded and poorly organized. There was great resentment in the Bengali population over the adoption of Urdu at the expense of Bengali as the national language of Pakistan. Rahman and the Awami League were an important element of the Language Movement of the 1950s. Compounded by the lack of democracy in Pakistan under military rule, the popularity of Rahman and his party rose greatly.
Leading East Pakistan
Mujibur Rahman became a major critic of President Ayub Khan and his military regime. The Awami League joined the opposition coalition against Ayub Khan in the elections of 1963, supporting Fatima Jinnah against him. The League was also behind the increasing student protests and agitations across East Pakistan following the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.
The Agartala Conspiracy Case was a sedition case in Pakistan, framed by the Government of Pakistan against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, leader of Awami League, and 34 other persons. The case was filed in early 1968, and implicated Sheikh Mujib and others in conspiring with India against the stability of Pakistan. The case is officially called State vs. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and others, but is popularly known by Agartala Shorojontro Mamla (Agartala conspiracy case) as the main conspiracy purported to have taken place in the Indian city of Agartala near the border with East Pakistan.
During this period, Rahman was not an advocate of the independence of East Pakistan, but a proponent of increased regional autonomy, and a federation-system of government across Pakistan.
6 Point movement
Template:Main 6 Point Movement was a Bengali nationalist movement in East Pakistan spearheaded by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which eventually resulted in the liberation of Bangladesh. The movement's main agenda was the realization of the 6 demands put forward by the East Pakistan Awami League, to end the exploitation of East Pakistan by the West Pakistani rulers. The six points were:
- The constitution should provide for a Federation of Pakistan in its true sense on the Lahore Resolution and the parliamentary form of government with supremacy of a Legislature directly elected on the basis of universal adult franchise.
- The federal government should deal with only two subjects : Defence and Foreign Affairs, and all other residuary subjects shall be vested in the federating states.
- Two separate, but freely convertible currencies for two wings should be introduced ; or if this is not feasible, there should be one currency for the whole country, but effective constitutional provisions should be introduced to stop the flight of capital from East to West Pakistan. Furthermore, a separate Banking Reserve should be established and separate fiscal and monetary policy be adopted for East Pakistan.
- The power of taxation and revenue collection shall be vested in the federating units and the federal centre will have no such power. The federation will be entitled to a share in the state taxes to meet its expenditures.
- There should be two separate accounts for the foreign exchange earnings of the two wings ; the foreign exchange requirements of the federal government should be met by the two wings equally or in a ratio to be fixed; indigenous products should move free of duty between the two wings, and the constitution should empower the units to establish trade links with foreign countries.
- East Pakistan should have a separate militia or paramilitary forces.
This 6-point programme was viewed as blatant separatism by politicians in West Pakistan, who vociferously oppposed each point. Rahman became a hated figure in the West, and the principal rival of the Pakistan People's Party of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, which was competing with the League to lead the central government following Ayub's resignation in 1969.
Liberation of Bangladesh
After the great coastal cyclone of 1970, when the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives and sufferings of thousands of Bengalis were met with complete indifference of the central government, the anger against the central government increased strongly. As a successful culmination of the six point movement, Sheikh Mujib's Awami League achieved success in the general elections of December 1970. While Mujib's Awami League won all but two of the 162 seats in the Pakistani National Assembly allocated to East Pakistan, the Pakistan People's Party, led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, won most seats in West Pakistan. Because of the higher number of seats won by the Awami League (East Pakistan had a larger population, and larger allocation of seats) it won absolute majority and claimed right to form the next government. Although Bhutto was a populist Sindhi leader sometimes at odds with the military, this time his interests coincided with that of the military junta. Neither Bhutto nor the military was ever willing to cede to the results of the elections as long as Mujib won it and the balance of power shifted to the East Pakistan. Bhutto refused to bring his party to Islamabad to take part in the new assembly, and the military leadership took to stalling techniques in the name of negotiation. The situation caused great tension, especially in East Pakistan. Although always a champion of Bengali nationalism, up until now Mujib tried to reconcile Bengali interests within the framework of Pakistan. When this time his and his people's rights were denied outright, he called for peaceful but total non-cooperation with the Pakistani government. The government machinery in East Pakistan was completely halted after March 1 of 1971.
President Yahya Khan was unable to reach a compromise, declared Martial law and cracked down on East Pakistan. On the night of March 25, 1971, the Pakistani military commenced a ruthless program which included genocide. In the nine months that followed, about three million civilian were killed. Bengali resistance fighters Mukti Bahini started guerilla confrontations with the Pakistani army; first sporadically, and then under the command of the Bangladesh government in exile. Sheikh Mujib was arrested, but many of his supporters managed to escape to India, and declared East Pakistan's independence as Bangladesh. Mujib became provisional president. About ten million East Pakistanis fled to India to escape the genocide and the routine rape, looting and torture instigated by the Pakistani army and their East Pakistani cohorts (mainly fundamentalist Islamic parties). With the growing burden of the refugees and provocation by Pakistan at its borders, India rendered support to the Bengali resistance forces. Full scale war (Bangladesh Liberation War) erupted and by December 1971, West Pakistan troops in the East finally surrendered to the joint Bangladesh and Indian forces Mitro Bahini. Back in Pakistan, Lietenant General Rahimuddin Khan (later full General and dictator of Balochistan) was appointed by Yahya to preside over Mujib's criminal court case. Rahim unconfirmedly held him guilty on various, unclear counts. The proper sentence and court proceedings have never been made public. Sheikh Mujib was released from Pakistani jails and returned to the new Bangladesh on January 10, 1972 to become the prime minister. Mujib pardoned the Pakistani prisoners-of-war, and let them return to Pakistan. The Awami League won a huge majority in the country's first elections in 1973.
One-party rule under BAKSAL
Sheikh Mujib proved to be a charismatic leader, but inept to face the challenges that the country was facing after the war. His government was plagued by corruption, intrigue, infighting, and an insurgency by the ultra-left activists as well as reactionary forces that opposed independence. The economy was devastated by a famine in 1974, and some exaggerated accounts of the famine contributed to further discredit his government. Also, Countries that opposed the emergence of Bangladesh (most notably China, the US, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan) took advantage of the instability and provided support to the subversive forces.
In 1975, Sheikh Mujib attempted to regain control by declaring a state of emergency. The legislature rubber-stamped an amendment to the constitution completely diverting it from the democratic principles of the country. Mujib declared himself president for life, outlawed all political parties except the Awami League and banned newspapers. A paramilitary force, loyalist to the party, was raised that was ruthlessly used to subdue any opposition. This force was responsible for many extra-judicial killings of mainly left-wing extremists.
Assassination
On August 15, 1975, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, several members of his family including minors, and his personl staff and political confidantes were killed in a military coup. Although first given the appearance of an act of revenge by a group of disgruntled junior army officers, facts emerging later present evidence of a long-planned conspiracy. Some cabinet ministers, bureaucrats wary of civilian power, and military leaders later claiming the full glory of the war of independence participated in what some say was a plan initiated and executed by the then Dhaka station-chief of the CIA. (See Bangladesh: A Legacy of Blood and other books by Anthony Mascarenhas). Mujib was replaced by one of the conspirators, his former minister of commerce and of land revenue Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad. The only survivors in his immediate family were two of his daughters, Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana, who were away in West Germany at the time.
The coup leaders were protected from prosecution by an ordinance titled Indemnity Ordinance promulgated by the military government, which gave legal protection to the coup leaders.
In 1996, Sheikh Mujib's daughter, Sheikh Hasina, was elected prime minister. Following the revocation of the Indemnity ordinance by the parliament, a murder case was lodged. Some of the main conspirators of the coup including Colonel Syed Faruque Rahman were arrested, while others including Colonel Rashid fled abroad. The verdict gave capital punishment to the main leaders of the coup (Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad died by natural causes before the trial).
Quote
- "The struggle this time is for our freedom. The struggle this time is for our independence."
— from a speech by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the Racecourse Ground (now called Ramna Park) in Dhaka on March 7, 1971.
See also
- 6 Point Movement
- Agartala Conspiracy Case
- Mukti Bahini
- Bangladesh Liberation War
- Indo-Pakistani War of 1971
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External links
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